The Salisbury branch line of the Great Western Railway from to Salisbury in Wiltshire, England, was completed in 1856. Most of the smaller stations were closed in 1955 but the line remains in use as part of the Wessex Main Line.
History
Wilts and Somerset Railway
In 1844 the Great Western Railway (GWR) and the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) were engaged in a struggle to secure territory, known as the gauge war: the GWR lines were broad gauge and the LSWR were standard gauge, sometimes called "narrow gauge" for contrast. When the LSWR proposed a new line from Basingstoke to Newbury and Swindon, the GWR sought to fend it off with their own proposal, a branch line from their main line at Thingley Junction, west of Chippenham, to Salisbury. In this period the government's policy was that any general area could only support one railway line, and a commission appointed by the Board of Trade would appraise rival proposals and determine which should be permitted. In this case the GWR's scheme won by decision in December 1844.
The Wilts and Somerset Railway company was formed; nominally independent but heavily supported by the GWR. It planned to make a line from Thingley to Salisbury with branches to Devizes, Bradford on Avon, Frome and Radstock. It was to have capital of £650,000 and this would be secured on a guarantee by the GWR, which was to subscribe half the capital and to lease and work the line.
To join with other friendly railways, the plans for the Wilts and Somerset line were extended to reach Weymouth via Yeovil, and the company was now to be called the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway.
Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway
The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway obtained its authorising Act of Parliament on 30 June 1845. The simple scheme to connect Thingley and Salisbury was now to cost £1.5 million, and branches were to be built to Weymouth, Devizes, Bradford on Avon, Radstock, Sherborne and Bridport in addition; a total of of railway. The company proceeded with building the Thingley to Westbury section, and this opened to the public on 5 September 1848. From the summer of 1847 the reaction to the railway mania had set in and it became almost impossible to obtain money for railway projects. Construction of the Westbury to Warminster section started in March 1850, but the company was already running out of money, and in October 1849 the decision had been taken to sell the railway to the GWR; this took legal effect on 3 July 1851.
Completion by the GWR
The GWR had quickly initiated the construction between Westbury and Warminster, and this opened with a ceremony on 9 September 1851. The onward line to Salisbury lay across thinly populated territory, and the GWR pressed ahead with other priorities at first, but the authorising Act of Parliament (inherited by the GWR) did not merely permit the construction but required it. Local interests were frustrated at the lack of progress towards Salisbury, as well as other routes of the original Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth scheme. A writ of mandamus was obtained at the Queen's Bench for the line from Bradford on Avon to Bathampton, and the GWR applied for an extension of time and certain other powers to complete the lines. This was granted, but on the condition that GWR dividends would be stopped if the construction was not swiftly completed. In the face of this the GWR proceeded quickly; there were no great engineering difficulties, and the line from Warminster to Salisbury opened to mineral traffic on 11 June 1856, and to passengers on 30 June 1856. It was a single-track broad-gauge line, with an intermediate crossing loop at Wiley (later renamed Wylye); crossing facilities were provided at Wilton in 1867. The line was worked by single-needle electric telegraph.
The stations at opening were: (the terminus from 1851 to 1856)
Wiley (renamed in 1874) (closed in October 1857)
(Fisherton Street, west of the city centre)
The Salisbury station had an all-over roof with two platform lines and two centre carriage sidings. The LSWR station at Salisbury was located at Milford, some distance away on the southeastern edge of the city.